Northern Ohio had settlers mostly from the Northeast, many of whom supported abolition of slavery before the Civil War. One of the notable natives of Bristolville is John Henrie Kagi, who fought with John Brown in Bleeding Kansas before its admission to the Union. He was second in command during Brown's Harper's Ferry raid on the federal arsenal, where he was killed by militia at the age of 24.[2]

Kagi's sister Barbara Kagy Mayhew and her husband Allen Mayhew, also Bristolville natives, migrated to Nebraska City, Nebraska in the early 1850s. With Kagi's help, they created a cave under their cabin to shelter fugitive slaves on their way to freedom in Canada. Their 1855 cabin has been restored as the Mayhew Cabin museum, and is the only site in Nebraska recognized by the National Park Service as a station on the Underground Railroad.